SERIES N --- THE EXILE --- LESSON 07
KING HEZEKIAH OF JUDAH
From 2 Chronicles 29
When King Ahaz of Judah died and was buried in Jerusalem, his twenty-five-year-old son Hezekiah became king. His mother was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. For the next twenty-nine years, Hezekiah ruled Judah in such a way that it pleased Adonai, as his ancestor David had done. Hezekiah began reforms during the first year of his reign when he opened and repaired the doors of the temple which his father Ahaz had closed. He called for an assembly of the priests and Levites in the open space east of the temple and there he spoke to them. [Listen to me!] he said. [You Levites must sanctify yourselves and the temple of Adonai YHVH of your ancestors. Carry the filth out of the holy place and restore it as it was before our fathers sinned by turning away from Adonai’s house and forsaking Him. They closed the doors of the porch, put out the lamps and stopped burning incense and burnt offerings. That is why Adonai’s anger has come upon Judah and Jerusalem, causing us to be objects of horror, astonishment and hissing. That is why our men have fallen in war and our women and children have been taken into captivity. I have determined to make a Covenant with Adonai, that His anger may be turned away from us. Now you must not neglect to do what Adonai has chosen for you, to minister in His presence and burn incense to Him.] The Levites began to do the necessary work in the temple. Here is a list of them according to their clans:
1 -- Kohath clan - led by Mahath the son of Amasi and Joel the son of Azariah
2 -- Merari clan - led by Kish the son of Abdi and Azariab the son of Jehelel
3 -- Gershon clan - led by Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah
4 -- Elizaphan clan - led by Shimri and Jeiel
5 -- Asaph clan - led by Zechariab and Mattaniah
6 -- Hemanite clan - led by Jehiel and Shimei
7 -- Jeduthun clan - led by Shemaiah and Uzziel.
These Levites gathered their fellow Levites together, sanctified themselves and began the work of cleaning the temple. The priests cleaned the inner sanctuary of the temple and carried the dirt into the temple court. From there the other Levites hauled it out to the Kidron Brook. The work was begun on the first day of the month and by the eighth day the work was finished as far as the outer court. Another eight days were spent cleaning the outer court. The entire project took sixteen days. When the work was finished, the Levites reported to King Hezekiah. [We have cleaned all of the house of Adonai,] they said. [We have cleaned the altar for the burnt offerings and its utensils, the table for the showbread with its utensils and all of the utensils which King Ahaz discarded when he was king. We have sanctified them, put them in order and they are now beside the Altar of Adonai.] Early the next morning King Hezekiah assembled his city officials and went to Adonai’s temple. They brought with them seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer these animals on the altar of Adonai. When they had killed the animals, they sprinkled the blood against the altar. The male goats were brought before the king and his officials for a sin offering and these men laid their hands upon the animals. The priests killed the goats and placed their blood on the altar as a sin offering to atone for the entire nation of Israel, for thus King Hezekiah had commanded. Then the king formed a group of temple musicians, Levites who played the cymbals, psalteries and harps, according to the instructions which King David and the prophets Gad and Nathan had given, instructions which these men had received as Commandments from Adonai. The priests joined this musical group with their trumpets. Then the king ordered the service to begin, with the burnt offering to be sacrificed on the altar while the instruments played the songs of Adonai. The singers sang, the instruments played and the trumpets accompanied them and all of the people worshiped Adonai. This continued throughout the service until the offering was completed. When the offering was finished, King Hezekiah and his officials bowed and worshiped. Then they commanded the Levites to sing some psalms of David and the prophet Asaph as praises to Adonai. The Levites sang with gladness and they too, bowed and worshiped. [Now that you have consecrated yourselves to Adonai,] King Hezekiah said, [bring your sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Adonai.] The people brought sacrifices and thank offerings and those who so desired brought burnt offerings. Altogether seventy bulls, one hundred rams and two hundred lambs were brought for burnt offerings. In addition, six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep were brought as consecrated offerings. There were not enough priests to do the work of preparing all the burnt offerings, so they were assisted by the Levites until the work was finished, for the Levites had been more diligent in sanctifying themselves than the priests had been. The service in Adonai’s Temple was restored with a great number of burnt offerings, the fat of peace offerings and the drink offerings which accompanied the burnt offerings. King Hezekiah and his people were very happy, for everything had happened so quickly.
COMMENTARY
THE RISE OF ASSYRIA
By 1000 B.C. Assyria had shrunk from a country in control of neighbouring trade routes and tribes to no more than a narrow strip of land. But one century later, under the rule of Ashurnasirpal II and his son Shalmaneser III, Assyria was strong enough to threaten all of western Asia. The ninth-century B.C. kings of Assyria probably did not intend to form an empire from the battles they fought each spring. They often wanted to protect their land from hostile neighbours. Raids brought them slaves, booty, tribute and trade routes as well. To them, their battle campaigns were religious crusades, for the king of Assyria represented their chief god Ashur, who was to rule all other kings and gods. In the early days, Assyria fought merely local tribal chiefs or rulers of small neighbouring states. Later campaigns ranged farther and farther from home. By the reign of Tiglath-pileser III in 745 B.C., the Assyrians were battling larger and stronger enemies like the Urartu and Meses. Tiglath-pileser III extended Assyria’s territory to a size never before seen in the ancient world. To prevent revolts and collect tribute in conquered lands, he replaced native rulers with Assyrian governors. By relocating large numbers of the conquered peoples, he avoided many of the ever-present dangers of rebellion. The next great king, Sargon II, soon controlled Syria and Palestine. But Sargon’s rule marked the last great dynasty of Assyria. Four gifted kings were all that it took to bring Assyria both to its height and to its downfall.
"Yahweh, God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his commandments"
Ne 1
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YHWH tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow's boundaries.
Proverbs 15:25
The house of the proud might not be torn down in his lifetime, but the house is more than the man. See Ahab, Achan, and the Canaanites. The difference between the proud and the widow is that the proud has a house, which means he has children and his name appears to carry on. The widow has no name of her own, and her children carry her husband's, not hers. The proud are those who would take what little she has, but God is the champion of the poor and defenseless.
First Fruits Ministries presents "Fruits of the Spirit: Self-Control,” the ninth part in a multi-part Bible-study series about the fruits of the spirit. This Bible study presents more depth about the self-control of the Lord and the self-control He expects from us as we await the coming of His kingdom: https://bit.ly/40HtncA
Leviticus says that some things are detestable to people and some things are abominations to God. They're all good to avoid, but I'd be especially careful about those things that God says are personally offensive to him.
https://soilfromstone.blogspot.....com/2021/03/detesta
SERIES N --- THE EXILE --- LESSON 06
ASSYRIAN CAPTIVITY
KING HOSHEA OF ISRAEL
From 2 Kings 17
During the twelfth year of the reign of King Ahaz of Judah, Hoshea became king over Israel. He was an evil king and ruled in Samaria for nine years, but he was not as evil as some of the previous kings of Israel. During Hoshea’s reign, King Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and defeated him, forcing Israel to pay Assyria an annual tribute. Hoshea rebelled against Shalmaneser, formed a conspiracy with King So of Egypt and stopped paying regular tribute. Shalmaneser soon learned of this, arrested Hoshea and put him into prison. Then he marched against Israel’s capital city Samaria and besieged it for three years. During the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, Shalmaneser captured Samaria and took many of Israel’s people into exile in Assyria. He settled them in Halab and along the Habor River in Gozan, as well as among the cities of the Medes. This all happened because Israel had worshiped other gods and followed the customs of the people whom Adonai had driven from the land when they came from Egypt. Israel had sinned against Adonai, Who had delivered them from slavery. The people of Israel had also done many wrong things in secret against Adonai, such as building high places throughout the land where they could worship other gods, setting up pillars and idols on the tops of the hills and under the green trees. They had burned incense to the gods of the nations whom Adonai had driven from the land so that Israel could occupy it. In these evil practices, Israel provoked Adonai’s anger, worshiping the very idols which Adonai warned them not to worship. Adonai had sent one prophet after another to warn Israel and Judah to turn from their evil ways and obey His Commandments, according to the Law which He had given them through their ancestors and the prophets. But the people would not listen; they were as stubborn as their ancestors who refused to remain faithful to Adonai. These people rejected Adonai’s Laws, as well as the Covenant which He had made with their fathers and refused to listen to His warnings. They pursued the folly of false idols and received folly as their reward. They followed the very nations whom Adonai warned them to reject. They made shameful idols, worshiped golden calves, turned from Adonai’s Commandments and even worshiped the sun, moon and stars. They served Baal, burned their own children as offerings and gave themselves up to evil as they tried to discover life through fortune-tellers and through magic. Adonai was so angry at all of this that He put them out of His sight until only the tribe of Judah remained. But Judah also turned from His Commandments, following the same evil which the other tribes practiced. Adonai also gave up Judah and let the enemy nations sweep in and plunder the land. Adonai put aside all the descendants of Jacob. Israel had split off from the kingdom of David and had chosen as their king the evil Jeroboam who led them into idol worship. They continued this evil until Adonai swept them away, as His servants the prophets had warned He would do. The people of Israel were carried to Assyria as exiles, where they remained as of the time this was written. To replace the people of Israel who had lived in Samaria, the king of Assyria brought other people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava and Sepharvaim and located them in Samaria. Assyria ruled over Samaria and the other cities of Israel. But the new people of the land did not worship Adonai, so Adonai sent lions to kill many of them. The new people sent an urgent message to the king of Assyria: [We who have been placed here in Samaria do not know the Law of YHVH of this land, so He has sent lions to kill many of us.] For this reason, the king of Assyria commanded, [Send back one of the priests who was taken away from the land so that he may teach these new residents about the Law of YHVH of the land.] One of the priests returned to Bethel and taught the people who had been brought into Israel from Babylon about Adonai. Those people however, continued to worship their own gods as well as Adonai, setting up shrines to their gods in the high places on the hills. The people from Babylon worshiped Succoth-benoth, the people from Cuth worshiped Nergal and the people of Hamath worshiped Ashima. The Avvites worshiped Nibhaz and Tartak and those from Sephar burned their children as sacrifices to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech. The people tried to mix their heathen worship with the worship of Adonai and appointed priests from among their own people to offer sacrifices on the altars in the hills. This mixed worship continued until the time when this was written. The people followed the heathen worship from the lands from which they came while also trying to worship Adonai. They actually followed their own religious customs more than the service of Adonai and obedience to His Laws. Adonai had made a Covenant with His people about such things, requiring that they should never worship other gods but worship Him only, for He had brought them from Egypt with great miracles and a mighty arm of power. He had contracted with them to obey His Laws which He recorded for them and never to worship other gods. It was Adonai alone they should honour, for He had delivered them from their enemies. But the people would not listen and followed other gods instead. These people from Babylon tried to do the same thing - worshiping Adonai as well as the heathen gods. To the day this was written, they still tried to do the same thing.
COMMENTARY
SARGON II AND HIS PALACE
Shalmaneser laid siege to Samaria when Hoshea rebelled. But the Assyrian king’s brother, Sargon II, is credited with the defeat of the city at the start of his reign in 721 B.C. Sargon campaigned in the south against Elam and Babylonia, north against Urartu, and in the west against Syria, Egypt and Palestine, later against Ashdod, Phoenicia and Judah. In 710 B.C. Sargon crowned himself king of Babylonia. Sargon used thousands of captives to start the building of his own palace northeast of Nineveh, at what is now Khorsabad. The foundations of Dur-Sharrukin, {Fortress of Sargon,} as he named it, were laid in 717 B.C. Surrounded by mud-brick walls over forty feet thick, the city stretched a mile across a fertile plain. Seven gates pierced the walls, which were topped by a road wide enough for troops to use in defence. To the northwest, an artificial terrace as high as the outer walls supported a citadel where the king and his court lived. Half the citadel stood inside the city walls while the fortified remainder jutted onto the plain. Visitors ascended staircases and ramps in the wall of the citadel. Huge figures of winged bulls faced the windowless palace front. Passages from the courts led to storerooms and kitchens. Only one hall opened to the king’s private rooms. Cedar roofs and pine doors scented his parlour, his guest rooms and bath rooms. Reliefs on the walls filled the rooms with scenes of Sargon worshiping, warring and at play. Another passage led to three shrines with altars, overshadowed by a ziggurat. Carved wood columns overlaid in bronze gleamed in the chapels’ courtyard. The citadel’s western gate led to palaces for the nobility. One palace had a stone threshold carved to look like a patterned rug with fringes. Larger-than-life paintings of the king were everywhere. Across from the palaces stood a group of several temples, dedicated to many gods. The large temple of Nabu, god of writing, was linked to the palace by a beautiful bridge of stone. The city of Dur-Sharrukin was dedicated in 706 B.C. A year later Sargon died, either killed in battle or murdered by his soldiers. His capital never reached its full capacity of eighty thousand residents. Sargon’s son and heir Sennacherib moved to Nineveh and Dur-Sharrukin fell into ruins like the cities Sargon had boasted of levelling in war.
Why is God so concerned about what consenting adults do in their own bedrooms? First, because EVERY person bears the image of God. YOU do not belong to YOU. Second, what you do, even in privacy, effects everyone around you.
Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
Leviticus 18:24-25
Open sexual perversion defiles the entire nation, not just those who practice it. Homosexuality, incest, bestiality, etc. are NOT victimless crimes. If you love your neighbor, if you love your country, you will not tolerate such things.
#leviticus 18:24-30 and Acts 15
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